Fritz and Eric

by John C. Hutcheson

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

  ANXIOUS TIMES.

  The boat continued driving before the wind for some little time, untilthe mountain cliffs of Inaccessible Island gradually lost their contour.They had become but a mere haze in the distance, when Eric, who hadbeen intently gazing upward at the sky since Fritz's last speech ofalarm, and seemed buried in despondency, suddenly appeared to wake upinto fresh life.

  He had noticed the clouds being swept rapidly overhead in the samedirection in which the boat was travelling; but, all at once, they nowappeared to be stationary, or else, the waves must be bearing theirfrail little craft along faster than the wind's speed. What could thispuzzling state of things mean? Eric reflected a moment and thenastonished Fritz as they both sat in the stern-sheets, by convulsivelygrasping his hand.

  "The wind has turned, brother!" he cried out in a paroxysm of joy.

  Fritz thought he was going mad. "Why, my poor fellow, what's thematter?" he said soothingly.

  "Matter, eh?" shouted out Eric boisterously, wringing | his brother'shand up and down. "I mean that the wind has changed! It is choppinground to the opposite | corner of the compass, like most gales in theselatitudes, that's what's the matter! See those clouds there?"

  Fritz looked up to where the other pointed in the sky--to a spot nearthe zenith.

  "Well," continued the lad, "a moment ago those clouds there werewhirling along the same course as ourselves. Then, when I first calledout to you, they stopped, as if uncertain what to do; while now, as youcan notice for yourself, they seem to be impelled in the very oppositedirection. What do you think that means?"

  Fritz was silent, only half convinced, for the send of the sea appearedto be rolling their unhappy boat further and further from the island,which, only a bare speck on the horizon, could be but very faintly seenastern, low down on the water.

  "It means," said Eric, answering his own question, without waitinglonger for his brother's reply, "that the same wind which bore us awayfrom our dear little bay is about to waft us back again to it; still, wemust look out sharply to help ourselves and not neglect a chance. Oarsout, old fellow!"

  "But, it is impossible to row amidst these waves," the otherexpostulated.

  "Bah, nothing is impossible to brave men!" cried the sailor ladvaliantly. "I only want to get her head round to sea. Perhaps, though,my old friend that served me in such good stead when the _GustavBarentz_ foundered may serve my turn better now; we'll try a floatinganchor, brother, that's what we'll do, eh?"

  "All right, you know best," replied Fritz, who, to tell the truth, hadvery little hopes of their ever seeing the island again. He thoughtthat, no matter what Eric might attempt, all would be labour in vain.

  The sailor lad, on the contrary, was of a different opinion. He was notthe one to let a chance slip when there seemed a prospect of safety,however remote that prospect might be!

  Rapidly attaching a rope round the bale of sealskins that wereamidships, thinking these more adapted for his purpose than the oars,which he had first intended using, he hove the mass overboard, gentlypoising it on the side and letting it slip gradually into the water. Hedid this in order that he might not disturb the balance of the boat,which any sudden rash movement would have done, causing her probably toheel over--for the waves, when they raced by, came level with hergunwale, and an inch more either way would have swamped her.

  In a few seconds after this impromptu anchor was tried, the effect onthe whale-boat's buoyancy became marvellous.

  Swinging round by degrees, Eric helping the operation by an occasionalshort paddle with one of the oars he had handy, the little craftpresently rode head to sea, some little distance to leeward of thesealskins whose weight sunk them almost to the level of the water; andthen, another unexpected thing happened.

  The oil attached to the still reeking skins came floating out on thesurface of the sea, so calming the waves in their vicinity that thesedid not break any longer, but glided under the keel of the boat with aheavy rolling undulation.

  "This is more than I hoped!" exclaimed Eric joyfully. "Why, we'll beable to ride out the gale capitally now; and, as soon as the wind chopsround--as it has already done in the upper currents of air, a sure signthat it will presently blow along the water from the same quarter--why,we can up anchor and away home!"

  "How shall we ever know the proper direction in which to steer?" askedFritz, who was still faint-hearted about the result of the adventure.

  "We won't steer at all," said Eric. "There are no currents to speak ofabout here; and as we have run south-westwards before the north-easter,if we run back in an opposite direction before the south-wester, whichis not far off now from setting in, why we must arrive pretty nearly atthe same point from which we started."

  "But we may then pass the island by a second time and be as badly off aswe are now."

  "What an old croaker you are!" cried Eric impatiently. "Won't I be onthe look-out to see that such an accident as that shan't happen? We'llhave to be very careful in turning the boat however--so as to bring thewind abeam when we get up abreast of the island, in order to beat intothe bay--for the poor craft is so leaky and cranky now that she'll notstand much buffeting about."

  "Can't I do anything?" asked Fritz, beginning to regain his courage andbestir himself, now that he reflected that their chances of getting backto the island were not so precarious and slight as he had at firstimagined.

  "Yes, you can bale out the boat, if you like," said Eric. "She's nearlyhalf full of water now and continues leaking like a sieve. The seamsstrain and yawn awfully when she rides, even worse than when she wasflying along at the mercy of the wind and waves. Still, we must try tokeep her clear if possible, as the lighter and more buoyant she is, thebetter chance have we of getting out of this mess."

  "I'll do the baling gladly," rejoined Fritz, really pleased at doingsomething, and beginning at once with the job, using a large tinpannikin that they had taken with them.

  "Then, fire away," said Eric. "It will be as much as I can do to attendto the steering of the boat. Look sharp, old fellow, and get some ofthe light ballast out of her! I see a light scud creeping up fromleeward, behind us, with the waves fringing up into a curl before it.The wind has chopped round at last and we'll have to cut and run as soonas it reaches us."

  Fritz baled away with the tin pannikin for dear life.

  "Now, brother," cried Eric, a moment later, "get your knife ready, andgo forwards into the bows. I want you, the instant I sing out, to givea slash across the painter holding us to our moorings."

  "What, and lose our bundle of sealskins!" exclaimed the practical Fritz.

  "Lose them? Of course! Do you think we'd have time to lug them intothe boat before we'd be pooped! What are the blessed things worth incomparison with our lives?"

  "I beg your pardon," said Fritz humbly, always ready to acknowledge whenhe was in the wrong. "I spoke unthinkingly; besides, if we lose these,we've got plenty more under the cliff by our hut."

  "Aye, if we ever reach there!" replied Eric grimly. Although takingadvantage of every possible device to reach the island again, as asailor he was fully conscious of the dire peril they were in. "Now,Fritz," he called out presently, as a big white wave came up astern,"cut away the painter, and just give a hoist to the jib and belay theend of the halliards, half-way up. There, that will do. Lie down forthe present, old fellow. The wind has reached us at last; so, it's acase of neck or nothing now!"

  Hardly had Eric uttered the last words, when a sudden rush of windstruck the boat's stern like a flail, seeming to get underneath and liftit out of the water. The next instant the little craft sank down againas if she were going to founder stern foremost; but, at the same moment,the wind, travelling on, caught the half-set jib, and blowing this outwith a sound like the report of a cannon, the small sail soon began todrive the boat through the swelling waves at racing speed.

  Onward speeded the boat, faster and yet faster. Fortunately, the mastwas
a strong spar, or otherwise it would have broken off like a carrot;as, even with the half-hoisted jib, it bent like a whip, thus yieldingto the motion of the little craft as she rose from the trough of the seaand leaped from one wave crest to another. The boat appeared just tokeep in advance of the following rollers that vainly endeavoured toovertake her, and only broke a yard or so behind her stern--which, onaccount of her being a whale-boat, was built exactly like her bows andthus offered a smaller target for the billows to practise on, as theysent their broken tops hurtling after her in a shower of thick foam.

  Eric had an oar out to leeward steering, while Fritz crouched downamidships, with the belayed end of the jib halliards in his hand, readyto let them go by the run when his brother gave the word; and, as theboat tore on through the water like a mad thing, the darkness aroundgrew thicker and thicker, until all they could distinguish ahead was thescrap of white sail in the bows and the occasional sparkle of surf as aroller broke near them.

  Should they not be able to see where they were going, they mightpossibly be dashed right on to the island in the same way as they hadseen the unfortunate brig destroyed. It was a terrible eventuality toconsider!

  Presently, however, the moon rose; and, although the wind did not abateits force one jot, nor did the sea subside, still, it was more consolingto see where they were going than to be hurled on destruction unawares.

  Eric was peering out over the weather side of the boat, when, all of asudden, on the starboard bow, he could plainly distinguish the island,looking like a large heavy flat mass lifting itself out of the sea.

  "There it is!" he cried out to Fritz, who at once looked up, rising alittle from the thwart on which he had been lying.

  "Where?"

  "To your right, old fellow; but, still ahead. Now, we must see whetherwe can make the boat go our way, instead of her own. Do you think youcould manage to haul up the jib by yourself? Take a half-turn round oneof the thwarts with the bight of the halliards, so that it shall notslip."

  Fritz did what was requested; when Eric, keeping the boat's head off thewind, sang out to his brother to "hoist away."

  The effect was instantaneous, for the boat quivered to her keel, as ifshe had scraped over a rock in the ocean, and then made a frantic plungeforwards that sent her bows under.

  "Gently, boat, gently," said Eric, bringing her head up again to thewind, upon which she heeled over till her gunwale was nearly submerged,but she now raced along more evenly. "Sit over to windward as much asyou can," he called out to Fritz, shifting his own position as he spoke.

  Almost before they were aware of it, they were careering past thewestern headland of the bay, when Eric, by a sudden turn of his steeringoar, brought the bows of the whale-boat to bear towards the beach. Thelittle craft partly obeyed the impetus of his nervous arm, veering roundin the wished-for direction, in spite of the broken water, which just atthat point was in a terrible state of commotion from a cross currentthat set the tide against the wind.

  But, it was not to be.

  The doom of the boat was sealed in the very moment of its apparentvictory over the elements!

  A return wave--curling under from the base of the headland, againstwhose adamant wall it had hurled itself aloft, in the vain attempt toscale the cliff--falling back angrily in a whirling whish of foam,struck the frail craft fair on the quarter. The shock turned her overinstantly, when she rolled bottom upwards over and over again. The seathen hurled her with the force of a catapult upon the rocks that juttedout below the headland; and Fritz and Eric were at once pitched out intothe seething surf that eddied around, battling for their lives.

  How they managed it, neither could afterwards tell; but they must havestruck out so vigorously with their arms and legs at this perilousmoment, in the agony of desperation, that, somehow or other, theysucceeded in getting beyond the downward suction of the undertowimmediately under the overhanging headland. Otherwise, they would haveshared the fate of the boat, for their bodies would have been dashed topieces against the cruel crags.

  Providentially, however, the strength of the struggling strokes of boththe young fellows just carried them, beyond the reach of the back-washof the current, out amidst the rolling waves that swept into the bayfrom the open in regular succession; and so, first Eric and then Fritzfound themselves washed up on the old familiar beach, which they hadnever expected to set foot on again alive.

  Here, scrambling up on their hands and knees, they quickly gained therefuge of the shingle, where they were out of reach of the clutchingbillows that tried to pull them back.

  As for the boat, it was smashed into matchwood on the jagged edges ofthe boulders, not a fragment of timber a foot long being to be seen.

  The brothers had escaped by almost a miracle!

  "That was a narrow squeak," cried Eric, when he was able to speak andsaw that Fritz was also safe.

  "Yes, thank God for it!" replied the other. "I had utterly given uphope."

  "So had I; but still, here we are."

  "Aye, but only through the merciful interposition of a watchful Hand,"said Fritz; and then both silently made their way up the incline totheir little hut by the waterfall, unspeakably grateful that they wereallowed to behold it again.

  Never had the cottage seemed to their tired eyes more homelike andwelcome than now; and they were glad enough to throw themselves in bedand have some necessary rest:-- they were completely worn-out with allthey had gone through since the previous morning, for the anxious nighthad passed by and it was broad daylight again before they reached shore.

  Not a particle of the boat or anything that had been in her was everwashed up by the sea; consequently, they had to deplore the loss, notonly of the little craft itself, the sole means they had of ever leavingthe bay, but also of the carcase of the goat they were conveying home tosupply them with fresh meat, as a change from their generally salt diet.The sea, too, had taken from them their last haul of sealskins, whichhad cost them more pains to procure than the much larger lot they hadpitched down from the plateau, and which fortunately were safe.

  Nor was this the worst.

  Their two rifles and the fowling piece--which Fritz had taken with him,as usual, in his last hunting expedition, for the benefit of the islandhen and other small birds--as well as the harpoons, and many otherarticles, whose loss they would feel keenly, were irrevocably gone!

  But, on the other side of the account, as the brother crusoes devoutlyremembered, they had saved their lives--a set-off against far greaterevils than the destruction of all their implements and weapons!

  The first week or two of their return from this ill-fated expedition,Fritz and Eric had plenty to do in preparing the bundles of sealskinsthey had secured in their first foray, and which they found safe enoughat the bottom of the gully where they had cast them down from above;although they little thought then of the peril they would subsequentlyundergo and the narrow chance of their ever wanting to make use of thepelts.

  Still, there the skins were, and there being no reason why they shouldnot now attend to them, they set to work in the old fashion of theprevious year, scraping and drying and then salting them down in somefresh puncheons Captain Fuller of the _Jane_ had supplied them with, aswell as a quantity of barrels to contain their oil, in exchange for thefull ones he had taken on board.

  After the skins were prepared, the blubber had to be "tried out" in thecauldron, with all the adjuncts of its oily smoke and fishy smell,spoiling everything within reach; and, when this was done, there was thegarden to attend to, their early potatoes having to be dug up andvegetables gathered, besides the rest of the land having to be put inorder.

  They had no time to be idle!

  Christmas with them passed quietly enough this time. The loss of theboat and the escape they had of their own lives just preceded theanniversary, so they felt in no great mood for rejoicing. In additionto that, the festival had too many painful memories of home, for whichthey now longed with an ardent desire that they had not fel
t in theirfirst year on the island.

  The fact was, that, now the whale-boat was destroyed, they were soirrevocably confined to the little valley where their hut was planted--shut in alike by land and sea, there being no chance of escape from itin any emergency that might arise, save through the unlikely contingencyof some stray passing vessel happening to call in at the bay--that thesense of being thus imprisoned began to affect their spirits.

  This was not all.

  Their provisions lately had been diminishing in a very perceptiblemanner; so much so, indeed, that there was now no fear of their beingtroubled with that superabundance of food which Eric had commented onwhen they were taking the inventory of their stores!

  But for some flour which Captain Fuller had supplied them with, theywould have been entirely without any article in the farinaceous linebeyond potatoes, their biscuits being all gone. The hams and otherdelicate cabin stores Captain Brown had originally given them were nowalso consumed; so that, with the exception of two or three pieces ofsalt pork still remaining and a cask of beef, they had nothing to dependon save the produce of their garden and some tea--all their other storesas well as their coffee and sugar having long since been "expended," assailors say.

  The months passed by idly enough, with nothing to do, and they watchedfor the approach of winter with some satisfaction; for, when that hadonce set in, they might look for the return of the _Pilot's Bride_ torescue them from an exile of which they were becoming heartily weary.

  The penguins departed in April, as before, leaving them entirelysolitary and more crusoe-like than ever, when thus left alonethemselves; and, then, came the winter, which was much sharper thanpreviously, there being several heavy falls of snow, while the waterfallfroze up down the gorge, hanging there like a huge icicle for weeks.

  It was dreary enough, and they hardly needed the wintry scene to maketheir outlook worse; but, one bitter morning they made a discovery whichfilled them with fresh alarm.

  They had finished eating all their salt pork, but had never once openedthe cask of beef since Eric abstracted the piece he roasted the yearbefore "for a treat"; and, now, on going to get out a good boilingpiece, in order to cook it in a more legitimate fashion, they found totheir grief that, whether through damp, or exposure to the air, or fromsome other cause, the cask of beef was completely putrid and unfit forhuman food!

  This was very serious!

  They had kept this beef as a last resource, trusting to it as a "stand-by" to last them through the winter months; but now it had to be thrownaway, reducing them to dry potatoes for their diet--for, the penguins,which they might have eaten "on a pinch," had departed and would notreturn to the island until August, and there was no other bird or animalto be seen in the valley!

  Their plight was made all the more aggravating from the knowledge of thefact that, if they could only manage to ascend the plateau, they mightlive in clover on the wild pigs and goats there; so, here they weresuffering from semi-starvation almost in sight of plenty!

  Fritz and Eric, however, were not the sort of fellows to allowthemselves to be conquered by circumstances. Both, therefore, put theirthinking caps on, and, after much cogitation, they at last hit upon aplan for relieving their necessities.